Ekolia’s expansion came out yearly, but none of them opens up without a pioneer. The first is Mechanical Technology, it brings many numbers of improvement and unique mechanics to the game, pun intended.

Not only that it introduces several new subclasses, it’s also the beacon of something like a "dream come true" for the crafting community. Particularly since the system allows an imaginable number of combinations to exist that is not limited by the usual presets made by the game.

It introduces several new explorable area, unique monsters, raids, and many other things.

And it has been opened, it seems.

But Ekolia shines the greatest with the second expansion which has come recently. The footage that played when I was in the castle inside the Prison Realm, it wasn’t the same as the one I got in my previous life but that was indeed a part of the intro to the DLC.

The Transcendental Realm of the End Kings.

Unlike the first expansion, this one did not just unlock a new explorable area – no, this one unlocks the entirety of the world, making it fully explorable.

They of course, do sort of the same thing, added more mechanics, classes, etc. But the most important thing is that you can actually visit other Realms.

We’re talking a massive world of its own that is comparable to Ekolia itself, and there’s more than one of them. These worlds are being ruled by the gods and goddesses that kept constantly appearing in the existing lore.

No one have actually completed the main quest of the expansion so I don’t really know much about it other than it being super hard, both the monsters in the other realms and the Quests within them.

But the EXP and Rewards it gives is a world apart from the ones in Ekolia.

“Thanks for keeping me company, man. I was almost bored myself to death walking out here alone, and if fate allows it, hope I can meet you again.”

I shook his hand, “Of course.”

! {GalaxBiTokua has sent you a Friend Request}

Leaving that request alone, I waved him goodbye after giving him a gift. A direction to the nearby exit.

*Sigh*

Message Inbox empty, “Where in the hell did that black stud go?”

Galliano hasn’t replied at all.

“Even if he failed to pass through the portal, he should’ve been— hm?” as I narrow my eyes down, “Nuh?! Wait, my [Message] is offline.”

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?!”

“Are you kidding me? The bug still hasn’t gone and you already compensating me! Come on, system! Seriously?!”

“Agh, since I’m a good person, I’ll let slide, but… come on, man!~”

*Sigh*

Thanks to trading with that Merchant, this journey to find the ruin has become a bit more bearable, but this is truly the worst startup I ever had.

There’s only a literal sand as far as these beautiful eyes of mine can see, so how am I supposed to describe this boring journey! I decided to pull out the Map and pour in all of my brain power into this thing, this single objective, “Find the Ruin, Find the Ruin, Find the Ruin…”

From what I’ve been told…

“No wait, miss Replica didn’t tell me at all about the exact way and location to find the ruin. But she did tell me that if I'm close to it, I would know it.”

“And it’s with the use of these eyes.”

Putting the map back into the inventory, “I need a mount.”

…

*DING~!

The sound of me forcing appraisal to do detection.

Unlike the usual skills, this eye is really uncomfortable. A concentrated-type spell is something that I despise the most. Not only that it hinders my mobility, but it requires a great focus to bring out the most of its potential.

Touch spell at least, most of them only need to touch the enemy once, and that’s it for the mechanic. Pretty simple.

*DING~!

“…”

“Not here too, eh.”

I sprinted as far as I could before doing another scan to the surrounding.

*DING~!

A presence finally tingled me from the south, but it’s coming from just one. I quickly hastened myself towards the direction and found a group of birds scattered around the area.

Sharp beak, two gem-like eyes of a sapphire. Black feather on the front, extremely white on the back. Standing on two long legs with huge puncturing claws for the feet.

I appraised them.

==== Quick Inspect ====

Terra-Beak Raptor / Level: 89 / Reptile / Health: 21.000

==== Quick Inspect ====

“Hmm, this is… quite unfortunate. The majority of them are all above level 80 so how am I supposed to tame one.”

The general rule of thumb, you need to at least be 1.5x higher level than the creature you want to tame, “Domination method is the best choice if I wanted to have a full control of the tamed beast. Should I use a bait instead? Offer it some food?”

“Nah, no way.”

“…”

After pondering through my status, I came out with several ideas.

‘I could try to use the skill [Sovereign Ritual] to summon a mount but… the skill cost too much Mana, and I wouldn’t be able to tame the beast unless I form a contract with it afterward... so, no.’

{Sovereign Ritual / Summon a creature from the outer plane unreachable by the gods to form a contract / Mana Consumption: Varied / Requirement: None}

‘At best I can only summon an undead horse and offer it around half percent of my Max Health but by then, I would be as fragile as a cracked glass.’

When it comes to making sacrifices in order to gain a benefit and access to further a better chance in reaching my goal, it’s hard.

Another way is… nope, there is none.

“I’m not gonna give em my food!”

“I’ll just force you guys to give me a ride!!”

When I was in the air as I’m trying to catch one of them. One suddenly turns its head towards me and blasted my body with a sonic echo.

*K-Kaaaaaawwwwww*

Deafening sound followed by an impactful wind blowing me away, “Ignition!” rotating in the air, swirling down as I reach the ground, I ran towards them with my hands wide open, “Come on, chicky chicky chiky.”

*K-Kaaaaaawwwwww*

*K-Kaaaaaawwwwww*

*K-Kaaaaaawwwwww*

“Bah! Trying to push me away from all sides now?”

“Hmph,” resisting the wind with all my might, I stand my ground until I mount on top of one of them chicken, “Gotcha!”

*Bak *Bak *Bak

{-200}

{-200}

{-200}

“Ow, ow, owwww! Stop doing that, I feel weird since there’s no pain in it, but please stahp!” grabbing its thin scaled neck, I blow it with my own flaming echo, “Combustion!”

*Bwoooooooosh*

It staggered, suffering concussion, but I didn’t let it rest.

*Tak *Tak

Pulling its head and smash its edge of its stomach with the back of my feet.

*K-Kaaaaaaaaawwwwwwww*

“Now go!”

*Wooosh *tak-tak-tak-tak-tak

Running past all of the other chickens, I bailed out of there ASAP with a new temp companion giving me a ride to my unknown destination.

…

Slapping me to the ground, “Ita!” I land face flat to the sand with my butt in the air.

*K-Kaawww*

The bird left while fuming with a burnt scalp.

“Ouch, it actually kicked me in the butt like that… Hm?”

As I lift my head, I was met with an incredible view of a shining light brightened the ruin beneath the cracked landscape.

“Huh, it blends in quite nicely. No wonder that it’s so hard to find, not really.”

“Hm? Why didn’t miss Replica called me yet? Didn’t she say that she would when I’m close to the place?”

“Should I go in first?”

“…”

“No,” sitting crossed leg, “Just be a good girl and wait. Maybe she’s occupied with something right now. Heck, is this fetch Quest even important to her?”

Decided to take out some of the food I got and enjoy the scenery under the scorching light of the sun here in the middle of the dessert.

“Ruins, huh.”

The scenery reminds me of a dungeon. Back when I first started, I never went inside one myself, not until those two introduced me to it. When I touch a game, I tend to dominate it.

But Ekolia is different.

Doing alchemy, be a team player, doing charities to the NPC in needs. I was all about having fun with this game.

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

My skin crawls as soon as the explosive sound was heard from behind me. I look around in shock to abruptly see the large creature emerging from the sand.

Hundreds of feet tall if it can even be measured as “tall”, the creature that has emerged is an enormous worm full of sharp scales with its carapace hardening in black color.

“What. The. F—”

==== Quick Inspect ====

Ignimulnir / Level: 875 / Demonic-Insect / Health: 400.000.000

==== Quick Inspect ====

*BOOOOOOOOOOM*

Crashing straight at me, my legs instinctively stretched out more than a V as the worm went inside the ground. It was long, so long that it felt like eternity for it completely go down.

*Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, “— awawawawawawawawawawawawawawwawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawawa.”

*oomph*

It snapped me back to reality, “M-Miss Replica!” quickly getting up and ran, I screamed at the empty air, “Please, help meeeeeeeee!”

*BOOOOOOOOOOOM*

“Ugwoooooooooooaaaaaaaah!”

In the nick of time, the impact when the creature emerged pushed my legs to stumble to the side, avoiding its attack.

“Wh-wh-what the hell is that thing doing here???”

I ran and ran as the creature is trying to turn me into its meal, “Come man, why is my life so hard here? It wasn’t supposed to be like this!”

And then suddenly, I heard something that I’ve been dying to hear for so long.

[Luosa, looks like you’re already—]

“MISS REPLICA!!! HELP MEEEEEEEEE!”

[H-How dare you yell at me, you piece of shit! Should I remind you that—]

“YOU CAN REMIND ME LATER IF I LIVE!!!”

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM*

Stumbled, fell on my butt, I saw the creature submerged once again, “Awawawawawawawa…”

[Don’t tell me you can’t even beat a worm]

“What do you mean by ‘even’? Have you 'even' looked at the size of that thing?!!”

[Tch, fine. Just stay out of its range]

“Hm? Range of... what?”

I wasn’t sure what she's going to do and wonder what she meant by “its range”, was she talking about the worm creature - like, should I stay away from that thing? I mean sure, but soon I know the answer when I ran away while being chased by it.

*Whoooomp *Whooomp

The area has suddenly gone dimmer and at the atmosphere has gone cold. The sun was blocked by the thundering clouds in the sky. Dark in the center as it whirls. My eyes were fixed at that spot, witnessing a large-scale miracle happens.

Gasping, “That’s…”

Tier 11 Overdrive Spell, the Judgement Magic.

The vortex summons a volatile inferno descending onto the worm as multiple flaming meteors showers its body with an extremely impactful force.

*BOOM *BOOM *BOOM *BOOM *BOOOOOOOOOOOM

I covered my eyes when the dust trying to pierced them. When the smoke cleared, I saw the gigantic worm’s body has torn apart.

*gulp*

‘That spell… it belongs exclusively to the people who has the blood of Hellblade. How can a human managed to cast it?’

Judgement Magic is category of spells that can only be invoked after a heavy discussion between major powers. One of the kingdoms in this world, the Sonata Kingdom was once used a different spell against the players who assisted the opposing kingdom.

It’s an extremely rare list of spells, and took a lot of resources to cast. And miss Replica did it just like that, and she even did it remotely.

[… the item]

“Huh?” shoot, I lost in thoughts.

[Brat, if you’re not going to listen. I’m going to pull you back in right now and let you have a taste of that magic up close and personal]

[Hurry up inside and fetch me MY item!]

“Awawawa, I-I’m sorry, miss Replica! This humble servant of yours shall go inside right now!” comedically running towards the ruin, and then came back, “Shoot, the core is still in there.”

[Corrupted Heart of the Sand’s Slave / Rank S-Legendary / Quest Item]

“There it is.”

All monsters have cores, and they can be used for a number of things. Though, only a few catch my attention. I even traded the Gargantua’s heart that I’ve got from the Prison Realm to be traded with food simply because it isn’t worth to hold on to, and in return, I got a lot of them delicious food and drinks from it.

[LUOSA!!!]

“Awawawawa!” runs back in.